February 11, 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake news

Vehicles carrying the bodies of hundreds of Syrians killed in this week's earthquake crossed into northwestern Syria from Turkey on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Bab al-Hawa border crossing told CNN.

The bodies of at least 1,000 victims have crossed through Bab al-Hawa so they can be buried in their home country, spokesperson Mazen Alloush told CNN.

Other vehicles carrying aid and fuel also passed through the crossing Saturday, Alloush said, including 22 United Nations trucks carrying medical aid. An additional 15 trucks carried in clothes, water and food from Turkish charities in collaboration with the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation, Alloush said.

More on aid deliveries to the area: The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit areas of northern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition forces and the Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of killing his own people.

The Syrian government approved sending aid into the rebel-held territories Friday but has not provide a specific timeline.

So far, that's left rebel-held areas reliant on aid groups, including the UN.

Rescuers in Gaziantep, Turkey, saved Sezai Karabas and his young daughter, Şengul Karabas, during the 132nd hour of rescue efforts there on Saturday. 

In video shared with CNN by its affiliate station, CNN Turk, the father can be heard pleading with rescuers to search for his wife, who he believes is still alive and trapped in a doorway.

"I’m forever in your debt," Karabas can be heard telling the rescuers, imploring them to help find his wife, who he said ran ahead of him when the earthquake struck on Monday. 

In the same hour, but in the province of Hatay, a team of rescuers lifted a 34-year-old man, Ergin Guzeldogan, from deep within the ground in a video shared with CNN by the Municipality of Istanbul.

The death toll following deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has surpassed 25,000.

In Turkey, the number of people killed has risen to 21,848, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  

Speaking in the southeastern city of Sanliurfa on Saturday, Erdogan added that 80,104 people had been injured.

In Syria, the total number of deaths stands at 3,553, including 2,166 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the White Helmets civil defense group. There have been 1,387 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media.

The total number of injured people in Syria across all affected territories stands at 5,273, with 2,326 in government-controlled areas and 2,950 in the rebel-held areas.

The United Nations aid chief described this week's devastating earthquake in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria as the "worst event in 100 years" to hit the region.

The official, Martin Griffiths, made the remark to reporters during a visit to Kahramanmaras, Turkey, on Saturday.

Griffiths, who is the current under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator at the UN, stressed that the UN would have a "clear plan" on either Sunday or Monday "to give an appeal for a three-month operation to help the people of Turkey with humanitarian assistance."

He added that a similar plan will be laid out for the people of Syria. 

During his trip to Kahramanmaras, Griffith met families impacted by the devastating earthquake. Posting pictures of the meeting on Twitter, Griffiths said he had "listened to their stories of shock and devastation."

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma visited rescue teams and civilians in parts of northwestern Syria hit by Monday's devastating earthquake, according to Syrian state media. 

State media SANA reported Saturday that they went to the Tishreen University Hospital in the city of Latakia to visit people injured by the earthquake. 

While in Latakia, the couple spoke to families impacted by earthquake at the city's Bassel al-Assad educational center.

Assad and his wife also paid a visit to Russian and Syrian rescue teams operating in the city of Jableh, 25 kilometers (about 15.5 miles) south of Latakia. 

Pictures from the scene posted by SANA showed huge groups of rescue workers pause operations to listen to the president.

On Friday, Assad used his first televised comments since the earthquake struck parts of Syria to criticize Western nations.

Syria’s state-run media and government officials have pinned the lack of humanitarian aid and hindered rescue equipment on US and European Union sanctions. However, several countries have sent aid to Assad’s government, and international humanitarian organizations have distributed aid across government territory.

CNN's Mostafa Salem and Eyad Kourdi contributed reporting to this post.

Germany has also suspended rescue and relief work at the site of a deadly earthquake in Turkey due to security concerns, following a similar move by Austria earlier Saturday.

The German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) stopped its rescue operations due to a change in the security situation in the Hatay region, the organization said in a statement Saturday.

It had been operating with International Search and Rescue (ISAR) Germany, in coordination with Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD).

The Austrian Army also cited security risks in suspending its operations.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has warned that action will be taken against people looting and committing other crimes in some of the areas hit by the quake.

It comes as the president said that at least 21,043 people are known to have died in Turkey following Monday’s 7.8 magnitude quake.

There are increasing security concerns in the quake zone and the Austrian army has suspended rescue operations there due to an increasingly difficult security situation. 

Speaking in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey on Saturday, Erdogan also said university dorms will be dedicated to hosting earthquake victims who have lost homes and classes will go online to accommodate that until summer time. 

In Syria, the total number of dead stands at 3,513, including 2,166 in rebel-held areas in the northwest of the country, according to the "White Helmets" civil defense – and 1,347 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media.

The whirring of saws and hammering of nails filled the belly of the ferry, its silent parade of cars was replaced by a hive of midnight activity.

Above deck, seats of the cabin were empty and the tables bare except for the school books and toys that waited for unknown children. 

In Istanbul’s Yenikapı Port, a midnight transformation was underway Friday night, as city authorities raced to transform one of two ferryboats into a floating village, with enough showers, kitchens, and even school teachers to temporarily house 1,200 people left homeless by this week’s deadly earthquake.

With its departure set for Saturday morning, time was of the essence, with city workers and volunteers having only started the ship’s metamorphosis 24 hours earlier.

By midnight, a few dozen bunks stood upright, ready for the extra crew, and 14 hospital beds were being shrouded with sheets, for the injured evacuees, that the boat will pick up in Iskenderun port, in Turkey’s earthquake-stricken Hatay province. 

While Turkey’s president has promised to provide hotel rooms for homeless residents, this project was the product of Istanbul’s own initiative rather than any government edict.

It’s a much needed, if imperfect, solution to the impending housing crisis, with thousands of buildings destroyed, likely many more uninhabitable.

"People will be able to sleep," Sinem Dedetaş, general manager of the Istanbul’s ferry lines, which owns the boat, said. "They will be able to wash and use toilets, to eat comfortably. We will have socialization and rehabilitation areas." 

The World Health Organization's director-general arrived in Syria’s earthquake-hit Aleppo city on Saturday, according to Syrian state media SANA. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus departed from Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport on Saturday morning on a humanitarian aid flight carrying more than $290,000 worth of trauma emergency and surgical kits, in coordination with Dubai’s International Humanitarian City (IHC), the IHC told CNN. 

Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Emergencies Programme, who departed on the flight with Ghebreyesus, told CNN on Friday that the aid shipment was a “scale up” of already existing WHO supplies in Syria. 

Another flight is scheduled to reach Syria on Sunday and is expected to carry “37 metric tons of emergency health supplies to reach 300 000 people,” the WHO said.

Some context: The international community has been urged to do more to help civilians in Syria following Monday's devastating quake.

On Friday, volunteer organization Syria Civil Defense announced the end of its search and rescue operations for survivors in rebel-controlled areas in the north and northwest.